Posts Tagged ‘students’
Rethinking Everything
One of the buildings at Hopkins, my high school. Hopkins fostered my love of words and learning, and each time I teach a literature class, I try to channel the brilliant teachers who taught me. An environment like Hop (or Hop itself) would be my dream teaching job. I want to teach high school English [...]
happy reunion
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a snippet from the classroom. Yesterday, a student who had been gone for a few weeks returned to class. He’s the only one in that class for now, so it’s a great opportunity for us to really hone his writing skills and dive into the books we read. [...]
part i: korea love
In my holiday ambivalence post, I mentioned my renewed intention to focus on the great parts of living in Korea. I know I’ve gone out of order, and skipped to part ii: to your health before addressing part i, but here we are, finally getting around to it. (I am intentionally waiting on part iii [...]
charmed, i’m sure
Oh students. I’m currently teaching a brother/sister pair, each the only student in back-to-back classes. When I got to the second class, with the brother, we had a nice little chat. Him: Did you dye your hair? Me: Yes. Him: Most Asian guys would probably tell you that you’re hot, but in fact, actually… [stunted [...]
“you look very shiny today”
One of my favorite and most entertaining students decided to pay me a compliment when I walked into class today, and it turned into a rather hilarious teaching moment. He’s a flirt and joker, but a diligent student, so he gets away with it. Today, he looked at me with a big smile and said: [...]
loving my work
I really love the work that I do here now. This doesn’t mean I always love my job, mind you. Sometimes there are parts of the job that drive me nuts, but the work I do, I love. And that’s the important part, right? Jobs change frequently, but finding work that feels true? Jackpot. Test [...]
celiac in seoul
Today was a day of extremes. I woke up feeling under the weather, but pulled myself together for hogwan. In my first class, one of my more amusing (and at times frustrating) students asked if I’d gotten enough sleep. “Why, do I look that tired?” “Yes.” “Fine. But if you’re going to insult me, you [...]
test anxiety, dahn yoga, and the feel good email of the day
A bunch of my students took the TOEFL exam this weekend, including one of my fave girls. I gave her my email address and asked her to drop me a line telling me how it went, as she’s not coming back to hogwan. It was a great way to start my day, and not just [...]
letter to white witch
The school here offers classes in a variety of subjects, including a selection of reading and writing classes for students who are in the early phases of learning English. They read a series of books and are introduced to the process of writing responses. A friend recently assigned his students the task of writing a [...]
toefl stumpers (i)
Teaching TOEFL speaking means it’s your job to make sure your students can pronounce words correctly. The fun way to make this happen? Find words that are difficult for them to say, break them down, and make them practice — together, in unison, loudly. The biggest offenders are words that have some combination of the [...]